McMaster-Carr Management Trainee Program

Got an e-mail about this last week. Anyone know anyone in this program? It seems like they like to take kids from top schools, put them in their trainee program, and then the kids manage factory workers.

It's still sounds more interesting than what I'm doing now (MO at a MM).

Anyone know about the exit opps for this program? I want to go to a top MBA school --> Trading. I feel that this isn't relevant to trading, but the management experience would be big points for B-School. Any thoughts on this?

 

I had a friend interview on-site for what I'm assuming was a final round. They had a Town Car pick him up and the cabbie said he picked up kids from top schools. Apparently, most people there do evening/weekend MBAs at UCLA/USC. I think the firm might even pay for it. The Socal location is in a really gross area though. You definitely wouldn't want to live anywhere near there.

 
Best Response

I was recruited, worked there for 6 months, and quit before I lost my mind. McMaster-Carr has an incredibly toxic work environment. The work is challenging, but also excruciatingly boring and completely meaningless. You're essentially the middleman in distributing industrial supplies. The "management development program" isn't structured in any way and you're randomly moved around to different departments at the hand of some opaque authority. Don't count on more than 2 weeks of training (you're lucky to get even that). Everyone is afraid of getting fired and turnover is ridiculous. Management and upper management actually have secret meetings in which they rank employees (including management trainees) in relation to each other, and just fire the bottom quarter. If someone in upper management doesn't love you, or if you just don't jive well with your manager, you're out. If you're looking at this job as a way to enhance your resume and job prospects, the management development program develops no skills that would be applicable to anything outside of McMaster. It's a profitable company, but operations is shockingly inefficient. The foundational software all departments use is an IBM program from the 1970s. There are entire departments set up to work around it instead of doing an overhaul, and everyone has to memorize and adapt to the excruciatingly boring minutiae of pulling data and completing basic tasks on this software. Pretty much everyone I talked to at McMaster is cynical about their jobs. Also, upper management is extremely strict and only recently allowed people to keep water on their desks.

 

My friends bother went to UPenn and then did the program for a couple of years. I think they paid well. He worked in the LA branch which was a terrible commute because its in the inland empire, not sure if you are thinking LA. Also I know he had to go to work pretty damn early. Now he goes to Kellogg part time so they let him transfer to the Chicago office.

 

I am reading more about them on glassdoor and jobvent.

It seems like a place where 23-25 year olds manage a bunch of 50+ year old disgruntled factory workers (maybe because they are being managed by people half their age who have 0 managerial experience). Obviously the people on this site would be in the former.

Also it seems like everyone who works at McMaster and gets their MBA is doing it part-time (which is a red flag, since I want to go full-time to eventually head into trading)

Hmm...a pro is that I would be working with very smart people. I may look into it further. I have a fear of driving, I would have to get over that fear to commute to their branches (which are all in the middle of nowhere).

 

Was just contacted by a McMaster-carr recruiter about the program myself. I majored in biological sciences and was previously seeking opportunities in the biotech industry.. Understandably, the position would be completely irrelevant to my ultimate career goals, but still has me on the hook considering the good things I've heard on glassdoor about the pay/benefits etc. Did you follow up/participate in the program, elijah? I'd appreciate anything you might be able to share about it.. thanks!

 

I got contacted by a recruiter today for this management trainee position as well. As has been mentioned, looks like fresh college grads from top schools being thrust into management which they are not trained for. Comp looks to be between $75-85k which is more then I am making now.

I will probably throw them a bone, interview, and if I accept, still continue applying for IB positions.

Upside is you seem to be working with young, intelligent people. Downside is, what the fuck is this company? Some privately held distributor. They don't produce anything. May or may not be hard to have "value-added" cost saving or revenue generating experiences.

If it places into Top 15, great, but I don't think I would want to do part-time.

My name is Nicky, but you can call me Dre.
 
aempirei:
Downside is, what the fuck is this company? Some privately held distributor. They don't produce anything. May or may not be hard to have "value-added" cost saving or revenue generating experiences.

Youre joking, right? Everyone, and I mean everyone, who works for a living and makes stuff with their hands knows mcmaster-carr. There isn't a company that ive ever been to that didn't have stacks of their catalogs in the offices somewhere.

 
GentlemanJack:
aempirei:
Downside is, what the fuck is this company? Some privately held distributor. They don't produce anything. May or may not be hard to have "value-added" cost saving or revenue generating experiences.

Youre joking, right? Everyone, and I mean everyone, who works for a living and makes stuff with their hands knows mcmaster-carr. There isn't a company that ive ever been to that didn't have stacks of their catalogs in the offices somewhere.

No, I am most certainly not joking. My point was I don't think McMaster-Carr actually makes the products, they are just a wholesaler. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of finance types have no idea what McMaster-Carr is. I certainly didn't before today. They seem to enjoy being a low-key privately held company.

I guess the question I am asking myself and others, if you want to work in finance, is it worth joining the management trainee program here? I'm sure you learn a ton about corporate strategy, operations, etc. but it doesn't necessarily lend itself to M&A, Equity Research, other fields that most people on this site are looking for.

Plus, if I leave my current position at a Mutual Fund company for this, it would be seen as leaving financial services for industry and the most likely entry back in would be via an MBA.

My name is Nicky, but you can call me Dre.
 
aempirei:
GentlemanJack:
aempirei:
Downside is, what the fuck is this company? Some privately held distributor. They don't produce anything. May or may not be hard to have "value-added" cost saving or revenue generating experiences.

Youre joking, right? Everyone, and I mean everyone, who works for a living and makes stuff with their hands knows mcmaster-carr. There isn't a company that ive ever been to that didn't have stacks of their catalogs in the offices somewhere.

No, I am most certainly not joking. My point was I don't think McMaster-Carr actually makes the products, they are just a wholesaler. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of finance types have no idea what McMaster-Carr is. I certainly didn't before today. They seem to enjoy being a low-key privately held company.

I guess the question I am asking myself and others, if you want to work in finance, is it worth joining the management trainee program here? I'm sure you learn a ton about corporate strategy, operations, etc. but it doesn't necessarily lend itself to M&A, Equity Research, other fields that most people on this site are looking for.

Plus, if I leave my current position at a Mutual Fund company for this, it would be seen as leaving financial services for industry and the most likely entry back in would be via an MBA.

I guess a 100 year old $2 billion private company would be uninteresting to bankers.

Oh wait, I'm a banker and the thought of a $2 billion family owned private company just made me cream myself.

 

Hi there,

I too, was contacted recently about the management development program. Is it meant for recent undergrad graduates or is there a different track for MBA grads? I'm finishing up my MBA after 3 yeas full-time job experience and don't love the idea of starting out in the same place at a bunch of 22 year-olds...Any thoughts? Does anyone with experience in this program feel that two years in this program is a good spring board to other companies/more senior roles elsewhere?

Thanks!

 

On first glance, if you went to a strong MBA program (read: recognizable brand), I can't imagine they'd have the same program for an MBA as an undergrad.

But then I read this: http://www.mcmaster.com/#careers/management/=nfn83v

They make it sound like an English Bachelors+German Masters is doing the same type of work as a Harvard MBA. There could be a million reasons for this. The best idea is to contact them and ask if it's a post-graduate role or an entry-level role for undergrads.

There is another explanation for this. They're a smaller company, so they might advertise the "same" programs to both UG and grads. That doesn't necessarily mean they treat them or pay them the same way. I think your best option here is going straight to the source and asking them more about the program.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

They do have a different program or track at least for MBAs. Pay is higher, but not great (around $80K IIRC). Again, from my understanding the position was far more ops than finance-related. Passed a phone interview, but turned down a final round after talking with someone from the actual company (HR woman was very kind, but misled me a bit).

 

I actually work with a guy who's girlfriend is an analyst there. She went to Stanford and apparently likes it, but I think its a lot of information based strategy type work on the business side.

 

Girlfriend is in the management program. She makes more than me with an immensely better work life balance, but the culture is terrible, and the work is incredibly mundane. There's really no reason for them to recruit the caliber of talent they do. They're also pretty shady when it comes to firing people. If you can't conform to the strange corporate culture, you'll be gone pretty quick.

If you have specific questions, feel free to PM me

 

No sure about with an MBA but I interviewed for the program out of undergrad and they indicated that it was significantly above their peers. They did not specify but it seemed like all-in would be around $100-110k. Generally as a private company they are very difficult to find any information about.

 

Run. If you have a sliver of ambition or desire to learn, run as fast and as far away from McM as possible. At this point, they are just a well-oiled machine that doesn't need or desire to innovate. The only work at that company boiled down to day-to-day operations supervising. There's no marketing, no M&A, and it took them 30 years to open a new branch in Texas (because the tech infrastructure by IBM from the 80s couldn't handle more than 5 branches, I kid you not. ) Terrible location (unless you want to live in the suburb at the age of 22), unambitious peers, and no skill to learn beside truly basic excel stuff. The only thing going for them is the compensation, which is why their Glassdoor rating is between 2.5-3.5 for everything but compensation. I worked there for a year and felt my brain melting from the lack of intellectual stimulation.

 

That's pretty valid and insightful. Considering this awful market and my ability to generate substantial savings in 2-3 years, it seems foolish to disregard it. I don't think a lack of intellectual stimulation is my biggest concern right now. Going to a big bank sweatshop during a downturn or working 50-70 hrs a week on powerpoints also wouldn't give me any more desire to learn than what's been described to me. I am curious to hear more about your experience though. Dm?

 

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